Our team members and our Team reflections

Aloysius

My difficulties encountered: My lack of HTML knowledge was a key obstacle. But with the help of books and some of my friends, I managed to master the basics and helped in creating the links between webpages. It was also difficult to obtain reliable information on certain issues such as on Myanmar on the Internet, because many sites were explicitly pro-Myanmar. Thus I had to ensure my source was reliable by cross-referencing with newspaper articles.

My experience in group problem solving: I had some frustrations with my team in website design as I believed Dreamweaver was easier to use than HTML coding. But eventually I relented, as my teammates were skillful in HTML.

My teamwork experience: As one of the two Executive-committee members of the IT Club in the group, I led some members in research and write-up of our content. Our deadlines were punishing but I encouraged my members, and in the end, they still managed to complete their work. Hence good communication is always vital to ensure things get done.

Kai Qi

My difficulties encountered: I encountered some problems in understanding Southeast Asian history, as I did not major in history. However, with sufficient reading of current affairs, especially on Burma, I gained a clear understanding of the way ASEAN operates.

My group problem solving experience: I was in charge of compiling the content and webpages in the site. Although the job of ensuring a coherent and consistent website is a tedious one, I gain immense satisfaction from being able to fix the sources of coding errors (especially after long mulling over the codes). This job also allows me to supervise the progress of the group, thus ensuring the group do not fall behind our self-allocated deadlines.

My teamwork experience: I’m the Vice President of IT Club and also one of the 2 Executive-committee members in the group. I led the team largely in website design and I had to give specific instructions to each member. The hardest job was to ensure that each of the group members know what to do exactly, so that they will stay focused to their task.

Shirui

My difficulties encountered: As a junior member of IT Club, I was quite new to almost everything. I had to do a write-up for the content, which I struggled through. For website design, I had to constantly double-check my coding. In the end, everything went smoothly because I worked carefully. I also consulted my seniors for any problems I encountered.

My experience in group problem solving: One of the problems the group faced was that we had little knowledge on our topic. Doing research was the hard part and we had to share our content in our meetings. I helped to ensure the group stayed focused by telling my teammates which is useful and which is not. This cleared up many doubts on their minds as well as my own.

My teamwork experience: I’m also a member of the Harmonica Band and my schedule was sometimes incompatible with my teammates. As a result, I had to miss some meetings. But I always ensured I was up-to-date by checking with my seniors after meetings, and they were always happy to help me. I also bonded quite well with the rest of the team and we had much fun in the website design.

Zhixin

My difficulties encountered: I had participated in ThinkQuest in secondary school, so I had the relevant experience in website design. However one problem I faced was that some of my group felt that my design did not fit the theme of our content. I had to improve my design so that it fitted.

I was also not very confident in Southeast Asia history, so I had to do extensive reading on the Internet about ASEAN. This problem was faced by the rest of us too, but I managed to overcome it with sufficient readings. My experience in group problem solving The group faced some problems in the initial website design. There were arguments for Dreamweaver or HTML. Having taken part in ThinkQuest before, I had the relevant experience and I calmed both sides down by giving them my take on the issue. Eventually both sides compromised and settled on HTML coding, which I was also more skillful.

My teamwork experience: As a new student in National Junior College, I wanted to grab as many opportunities as possible in activities I liked. So I had to sacrifice valuable ThinkQuest meetings in order to fly to the Maldives for a community service project. I was guilty of missing meetings but my teammates were reasonable people. When I got back, I immediately updated myself on the progress of their work and asked for them to give me as much work as possible to make up for lost time. Teamwork is about taking in and giving out too.

Radhika

My difficulties encountered: One of my tasks was to do up navigation bars and use Javascript. Initially it was hard because I had not worked on websites before; however, I went about solving the problem by consulting websites and making efficient use of my prior knowledge of basic Java.

As an Indian scholar in Singapore, I knew little about Southeast Asian history or ASEAN. Thus it was hard for me to examine the issues prevalent in the region. Eventually through the help of my friends, I was guided in the research of the content.

My experience in group problem solving: My group was initially quite confused in Southeast Asian and at one point of time they nearly gave up. I stood by our stand to make a website on ASEAN and to participate in the prestigious Thinkquest competition. Receiving encouragement from someone outside Southeast Asia, they soon recovered from the setback because if I could concentrate on researching, so could they. We worked nights over this website and became really good friends, learning a lot about designing and ASEAN from each other. My teamwork experience: I’m part of the Sapphire Scholars Programme in my school and I also hold an Executive Committe position(Chief Editor) in College Publications. Because of my commitments, I could not attend many meetings. Yet, my group understood my situation. Good communication is therefore vital for any team to work well!